A few weeks ago I stayed in the Xiányáng hángkōng dà jiǔdiàn / Xianyang Aviation Hotel (a more idiomatic English translation of that would be Xianyang Airport Hotel) 咸阳航空大酒店 near Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. When I went to the bathroom, I was much intrigued to see this sign over the sink:

and this sign on the wall above the bathtub:

The sign over the sink reads:

Cǐ shuǐ jiārè kě yǐnyòng
此水加热可饮用
This water may be drunk after being heated.

In both cases, the Chinglish rendering of the Chinese conveys almost exactly the opposite of the intended warning:

HOT POTABLE WATER

PLEASE NOTE NON-SLIP

This is a good example of the need to have someone who is versed in both Chinese and English do translations that are intended for posting in public places. People's health and safety may depend upon it.

9 Comments

Observation said,

I would have interpreted both signs as a warning (slightly paranoid as I am), and then assumed they were mis-translated. My first guess for HOT POTABLE WATER was a typo for NOT POTABLE WATER.

The second one just doesn't make sense as a warning that a surface is NOT slippery, so I guessed the meaning correctly. At the worst case, if it was literally true, I'd still be OK because I don't usually try to skate around hotel bathrooms in my socks.

Ellen K. said,

I think it wasn't clear that the English given in the text was your correct translation, not what was written on the signs. It was not initially clear to me, though I did quickly figure it out. Still, I can see why it wasn't clear to Jhh whether or not the post included the correct translations. The lead in "The sign over the sink reads:" makes it incorrectly sound like all the red text below was on the sign.